STAVANGER, Norway, Aug 29 (Reuters) - John Knight, Statoil's executive vice-president for global strategy andbusiness development, told the ONS oil conference in Stavangeron Monday:
** Expects more deals in the Norwegian oil sector like themerger between BP's Norwegian business and that ofNorwegian oil firm Det norske and its top owner,holding company Aker, earlier this year.
** Says: "Some large, traditional players of the last 50years have already left ... Just this year we had one of thelargest (BP) changing its business not by leaving but by merginginto a smaller company and becoming a minority investor. Ibelieve we will see more of this in the coming period."
** Says: "And I believe that the financial character andrequirements of shareholders that sit behind this sort of changewill be different to some of the larger players. I think itmight mean we have to think about different ways of doing taxtransfers and asset deals."
** Says: "We all have to think further about the financialstructures for decommissioning and abandonment. We will have tothink about more collaborative and transitional models foroperatorship."
** Says: "I think we will see more complexity in contingencystructures and in payments, when assets transfers and businesstransfers are made." (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Stine Jacobsen, editing byTerje Solsvik and Alister Doyle)